U.N. calls Syria a "humanitarian catastrophe"

April 18 - Violence rages across Syria as rebels battle government forces in the east and residents comb through devastated streets of Aleppo. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

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Rebels take cover as a gun fight rages in eastern Syria.
Amateur video which could not be independently verified by Reuters shows opposition forces in the fight for their lives.
Western powers want to see the end of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad -- but are not providing military support to a conflict that has already killed more than 70,000 people.
Footage from Aleppo shows streets of despair. On Thursday the UN described conditions on the ground where Syrian families have been burnt in their homes, people bombed waiting for bread, and children tortured, raped and murdered.
The international agency is calling it a humanitarian catastrophe. More than a million people have fled the country and another 22 million displaced within, the legacy of a more than two year old conflict where no one has the upper hand.

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